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Correspondence Publishing Committee
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Correspondence Publishing Committee
Founded
1951[1]
Preceded by
Johnson-Forest Tendency
Succeeded by
News and Letters Committees
1955–Present
Facing Reality
1962-1970
Ideology
Marxism[2]
Anti-Stalinism[3]
Political position
Far-left
Correspondence Publishing Committee was a radical left organization led
by C.L.R. James and Martin Glaberman that existed in the United States
from approximately 1951 until it split in 1962.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Facing Reality
3 Sources
4 References
5 External links
History[edit]
The Correspondence Publishing Committee has its origins in the
Johnson-Forest Tendency led by C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya. Its
origins are as a Trotskyist organization but it developed a number of
theories including that the Soviet Union was a State Capitalist society,
an emphasis on Hegelian theory as a way of understanding the world and a
rejection of the Leninist vanguard party. It also sought to focus more
energy on the political issues affecting women, youth, African Americans
and rank and file workers.
It also had an emphasis on analysing popular culture such as movies and
books that was unusual for the era. After spending time as a faction
inside both the Workers Party (U.S.) and the Socialist Workers Party
(US), the Johnson-Forest Tendency broke with the Trotskyist left. By
early 1951, it had renamed itself Correspondence Publishing Committee.
It first published a newspaper, also known as Correspondence, in
November 1951 and analysed a wildcat miners' strike in West Virginia in
the first issue. The newspapers' cartoons have drawn critical acclaim.
It was forced to deal with the deportation of one of its main leaders,
C.L.R. James to Britain in 1953 that had a negative impact on the group.
Although C.L.R. James continued to advise the group on a very regular
basis from Britain, tensions in the group continued and a significant
number led by Raya Dunayevskaya split from Correspondence in 1955 to
form News and Letters and promote Marxist-Humanist ideas. They publish a
newspaper by the same name that remains in print today. Whether a
majority or a minority split from Correspondence in 1955 remains in
dispute. Historian Kent Worcester claims that Raya Dunayevskaya had a
majority of the members in 1955 but Martin Glaberman, writing in New
Politics has claimed the opposite. He has also challenged other aspects
of Worcester's book in a review that appeared in Against the Current
magazine.
After the split, James Boggs was named the new editor of Correspondence
newspaper. It issued a number of interesting pamphlets including Martin
Glaberman's Union Committeemen and Wildcat Strikes in 1955 and C.L.R.
James' Every Cook Can Govern: A Study of Democracy in Ancient Greece.
The latter favourably analyzed democracy in the Greek city states,
despite the oppression that women and slaves experienced in ancient
Greek society.
However, Correspondence will perhaps be best remembered for the book
about the 1956 Hungarian workers' revolt, Facing Reality, by C.L.R.
James, Grace Lee Boggs and Pierre Chaulieu, a pseudonym for Cornelius
Castoriadis. However, the group split again in 1962 when Grace Lee
Boggs, James Boggs, Freddy Paine and Lyman Paine split from C.L.R.
James. They continued to publish Correspondence for a couple of years
but increasingly reflected a third worldist somewhat Maoist politics.
Martin Glaberman and others who remained loyal to C.L.R. James started a
new organization known as Facing Reality that continued to promote the
same politics as Correspondence until its dissolution in 1970.
Facing Reality[edit]
The most important contribution of this group was the publication of the
book, Facing Reality. It analyzed the implications of the October 1956
revolt in Hungary against Stalinist rule. The nature of the contribution
by Cornelius Castoriadis is complex because he apparently did not have
an opportunity to examine the manuscript before it went to press. The
book argued that the example of Hungary demonstrated that modern society
was shifting towards confrontation between workers' councils and
bureaucratic institutions. Therefore, organizations such as
Correspondence were needed. It also included a defense of the role of
revolutionary newspapers, such as the one published by Correspondence.
There was also analysis of the radical potential of anti-colonial
movements such as the Gold Coast nationalist movement that had emerged
in what is now Ghana. Attention was paid to the role of Kwame Nkrumah.
The book was sharply criticized by Raya Dunayevskaya.
Sources[edit]
Kent Worcester, C.L.R. James: A Political Biography (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1996).
References[edit]
1.^ Rosengarten, Frank. Urbane Revolutionary : C. L. R. James and the
Struggle for a New Society, University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/stanford-ebooks/detail.action?docID=515643
Pg 32.
2.^ Rosengarten 2007, p. 32.
3.^ Rosengarten 2007, p. 33-36.
External links[edit]
Facing reality, complete book at Hathi Trust
Analysis of Facing Reality by Loren Goldner
Categories: Book publishing companies of the United States
Political party factions in the United States
Publishing companies established in 1951
Publishing companies disestablished in 1962
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--
________________________________________________
Jules Verne
“ Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add
nothing to them. ”
― Jules Verne